Marinated olives

olives, citrus & sizzled aromatics

I love olives any which way. Straight from the fridge, one by one, tapped against the rim of the jar to remove any excess brine. Torn into a parsley salad, with a splash of red wine vinegar and little else. Crushed under a knife to scatter over labneh. Tipped into a braise, brine and all. Tossed into a pot of pasta, along with any other salty saviours from the cupboard.

But most of all, I love them when they’ve been left to marinate, for a few hours or even a few days, with citrus and sizzled aromatics. People can pick at them as they chat and loiter around the kitchen in anticipation of supper. Serve with a glass, or a bottle, of something cold.

Orange & rosemary marinated olives with manchego

The combination of orange and manchego is a particularly good one, in my opinion, but you could use parmesan or pecorino if you prefer.

1 orange
2 garlic cloves
3-4 sprigs of rosemary
1 tbsp fennel seeds
Pinch of chilli flakes
100ml olive oil
300g nocellara olives
100g manchego

Use a peeler to remove 4 large strips of orange peel. Smash the garlic cloves with the side of a knife. Put the orange peel, smashed garlic cloves, rosemary, fennel seeds, chilli flakes and olive oil in a small pan. Set over a medium-low heat and cook for a few minutes until fragrant and gently sizzling.

Put the olives in a heatproof bowl and pour over the oil mixture. Stir well to coat the olives, leave to cool slightly, then refrigerate for at least an hour, and up to 3 days.

Once the olives have had their time marinating, roughly cut the manchego into jagged chunks then stir through the olives and serve.

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Bits & bobs

I’d like to be back in Edinburgh for this Christmas market

Time to make this ferment

Time to preserve citrus

Thinking about this already

Shell lights for the Christmas tree